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Game: CLEOPATRA and the SOCIETY of ARCHITECTS
Pub: Days of Wonder (2006)
Page 1: Rules summary
v1
Sept 2006
For best results, print on card, laminate and trim to size.
Setup
1.Turn the box upside down, place the Palace Garden
on top of it and the Plaza of the Sphinx in front of the
front door. Place the empty Altar of the Great Priest in
front of the Plaza next to the dice, blank side face up.
2. Place Cleopatra on the illustration on the Plaza. Place
the Mosaics in a random pile in the Quarry.
4. Each player receives a summary sheet, a Pyramid
of Corruption, 2 Statues of Anubis, 3 Nile Merchant
tokens, 5 Talents (Talents are kept face down) and 3
cards.
5. Cut the deck equally, turn one half upside down,
and shuffle the halves together. Draw the top 3 cards
and lay them side-by-side without changing their
orientation to form the 3 Market Stalls of the Market.
Game Round
Each player takes a turn, with play proceeding
clockwise. On his turn a player must perform only one of
the following actions:
Visit the Market
1. Choose cards Choose all the cards from one Market Stall (column of cards. If the player’s turn ends with more than 10 cards in hand, he must immediately:
a. Discard cards of his choice to the discard pile down to 10 cards, and take 1 Corruption Amulet.
b. Or keep all the cards, and take 1 Corruption Amulet for each card in excess of 10.
2.
Replenish stalls Draw the top 3 cards and place them on the Market stalls, keeping their orientation but choosing the order. Cards are placed offset so all previous cards in a stall can be seen.
When the draw pile ends a new one is formed from the discards, using the setup shuffle mechanism.
Visit the Quarry
1.
Build a piece of the Palace The player discards any
combination of Resource cards and/or Nile Merchants that match or exceed the construction
requirements of the piece.
b. Collect Talents Collect the Talents earned for building the Palace piece. If 2 pieces were built this turn, add 2 more Talents; if 3 or more, add 5 Talents.
c. Advance Cleopatra If the piece(s) built this turn result in a category of pieces being completed, move Cleopatra one space towards the palace door.
d.
Roll the dice of the Great Priest Roll the dice whose face up is still blank, and put any that land face up on the Altar of the Great Priest. If all 5 dice fill the Altar, proceed to an Offering to the Great Priest.
Character cards can be used at any time during a turn.
Tainted cards
When a tainted card is played add the number of
Corruption Amulets shown on the card to the player’s
Pyramid of Corruption.
Nile Merchants
A Nile Merchant can be played in lieu of any single
missing resource required (including an Artisan). Once
played, Nile Merchants are removed from the game.
Game End
The game ends when Cleopatra reaches the last step
before the Palace doors (ie when 5 out of the 6 categories
of pieces have been fully built).
Players then discard any remaining cards, collecting 1
Corruption Amulet for each tainted card.
Corruption Amulets are revealed. Players may place 1
Amulet on each space of the Palace’s Garden they have
claimed as a Sanctuary (including the space where their
Statue of Anubis is).
The player with the most remaining Amulets is fed to the
crocodile and cannot win.
The surviving players count their Talents, adding 3
Talents for each Nile Merchant they still have. The
wealthiest player wins. If there is a tie the player with the
smallest number of Corruption Amulets wins the tie.
Offerings to the Great Priest
If all 5 dice display the Great Priest symbol face up,
each player puts the number of Talents he wishes to bid
into his hand and they are revealed simultaneously.
The highest bidder discards 3 Corruption Amulets (or as
many as he has if he has less than 3).
The second highest bidder adds 1 Corruption Amulet,
the third highest adds 2, the fourth 3 and the fifth 4.
All Talents bid are lost.
Ties are broken based on the player’s rank in the
Offering, eg 2 players tied for first place will each
discard 3 Amulets, then the next player will be
considered to be in third place, etc.
Once the Offering has been made the dice are removed
from the Altar and placed blank face up again.
Building a Sanctuary
A Sanctuary is formed if a player places a Mosaic piece
in such a way that a closed garden area is formed in
which no further Mosaic can be built. The player may
then, at his option, place one of his Statues of Anubis in
the Sanctuary to claim ownership.
When a Mosaic piece is built and the next piece in the
pile could not be built in the garden spaces left, it is set
aside for the rest of the game. If the pile is thus emptied,
move Cleopatra one space forward.
2 Player Variant
At game start, remove the 2 Beggar and 2 Envoy cards
from the deck. Give 6 Nile Merchants to each player.
At the end of the game, no player is thrown to the
crocodile. Instead, subtract the number of Amulets
owned by the less corrupt of the two players from the
total number of amulets owned by the most corrupt
player.
The most corrupt player must then pay a tax proportional
to the amulets in excess of his opponent’s, according to
the following table.
Amulets in Excess
1 Amulet 2 Amulets 3 Amulets 4 Amulets 5 Amulets 6 Amulets 7 Amulets 8 Amulets 9 Amulets Tax Paid Out
1 Talent
3 Talents
6 Talents
10 Talents
15 Talents
21 Talents
28 Talents
36 Talents
45 Talents
The wealthiest player once this tax is payed is the winner
of the game.
To shorten the playing time, move Cleopatra one step
forward from her usual start position before the game
begins.